


That river in Egypt

by xtenn



Series: The Viscount Who Sure As Hell Didn't Deserve Kate [8]
Category: Bridgerton (TV), Bridgerton Series - Julia Quinn
Genre: Angst, Canon Rewrite, F/M, Family Drama, Idiots in Love, Jealousy, Siblings, Sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:35:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29214270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xtenn/pseuds/xtenn
Summary: Oh Kate. Poor girl.This is a canon rewrite that started as a one shot and is now a series but should probably be chapters in a single work. All credit is due to Ms Quinn for her characters and stories - I've taken some of her words and twisted them into this, a journey into a different trouser leg of time.
Relationships: Anthony Bridgerton/Kate Sheffield, Daphne Bridgerton/Simon Basset, Edwina Sheffield & Kate Sheffield
Series: The Viscount Who Sure As Hell Didn't Deserve Kate [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2129715
Comments: 26
Kudos: 150





	1. Daphne and Simon

Simon lounged against the headrest of their bed, admiring his wife and the gentle curve of her belly with his slow easy smile of desire. Daphne was standing across the room, in her nightgown with her hair out around her shoulders, pouring tea from the tray delivered by the maid. Another Spring day in Aubrey Hall was beginning. 

"I see the new Whistledown column is out," she commented with a small frown, picking up the newssheet and turning back to her husband.

"Who is her victim today?" her husband drawled.

"Is it wrong to hope for something disastrous to have occurred in London, so that bee sting will be forgotten, and Kate will avoid having it discussed at every ball for eternity?" Daphne mused.

"You stun me, Duchess!" Simon teased. "Wishing harm upon another? And no thought for your brother's reputation?"

"I am certain _he_ will be quite fine," Daphne laughed, sitting down on the bed next to her husband. But as she began to read, all traces of mirth slipped from her face. Her eyes moved frantically down the page, flipping it over to see if there was any respite. Her breathing quickened, and she stood up to pace across the room.

"It is too soon for any reference to Miss Sheffield and your brother, surely - it was not two full days ago!" Simon said, sitting up with concern. "Daphne, talk to me."

She shook her head. "There's no time - we need to get dressed, and I need to get to Kate before Cressida does and you need to beat some sense into that brother of mine."

Thrusting the gossip sheet into his hands, she raced off to call back her maid to assist her with dressing. Baffled, Simon picked up the discarded paper, and within moments was likewise on his feet, reading as he moved to his dressing room to find his clothes.

_It is with no small delight I write to inform you that we may expect thrilling - even shocking - news after the Bridgerton house party. It is my understanding that an attraction - or perhaps even so much as a secret offer of an attachment - is being kept hidden from our view and this will shortly come to light. But nothing, dear gentle readers, escapes my notice for long._

_Of whom do I speak? Why, none other than Lord Bridgerton, renown to all of my readers - and indeed, most of London! - as the very worst sort of Rake. A so-called gentleman whom many had despaired of ever finding a match and siring the heir to carry on his name. However, I have it on very good authority that a **certain young lady** has caught our Lord Bridgerton's eye at last - one who is worthy of his title, and his future, through no family name of her own but by the strength of her wit and character._

_Scandalously, this young lady is certainly not this season's Incomparable, the divine and sweet Miss Edwina Sheffield, who Lord Bridgerton is ostensibly courting. Indeed, that is altogether quite a forgettable match as it appears that Lord Bridgeton puts as little effort into his courting of Miss Edwina Sheffield as he does in hiding his attempts at assignations with another. My lord, if you cannot muster some enthusiasm for Miss Edwina, you had best step aside - many will gladly take your place. Or perhaps it would be preferable to make public your private sentiments for the one you truly desire, and act as the honourable gentleman you claim to be - or do you hope you can trap this prize into matrimony, like the very worst of the scheming Matchmaking Mamas you so despise? Perhaps it is simply that you fear her rejection would tarnish the image of yourself that you have taken such pains to cultivate? A well-placed fear indeed, as certainly, to date, the objective merits of your viscountcy have been insufficient to induce her to contemplate your company happily. I tip my hat to her!_

_Now, you know that I usually do not hesitate to name those I discuss in my columns, but this is a matter of particular delicacy. No, I will not name her, lest the tar of our Lord Bridgerton's rakish ways stain her unfairly, as there is certainly no evidence to suggest her behaviour in this matter has been anything other than irreproachable - whether the same may be said for Lord Bridgerton will be a subject of strident debate, particularly should he fail to heed my warnings and speak boldly, rather than continuing to act rashly._

_All I will say is that for those attending at Aubrey Hall, note well any particularly gallant or attentive behaviour of Lord Bridgerton towards a lady - and you may have a hint of who, if Lord Bridgerton has his way, shall be the next viscountess._


	2. Penelope, Kate and Edwina

Penelope had been pacing outside their bedroom, and handed over a fresh copy of Whistledown to Kate and Edwina as soon as they opened their door. 

"I'm so sorry, Kate," she said softly, looking like she was going to cry. 

"How bad can it be?" joked Edwina, incredulous - still thrilling from Kate's whispered news as they had dressed that morning of her almost-proposal and definite-kiss. "The bee sting wasn't even two days ago!" 

Kate blindly found a bench in the hall, and sat down heavily - her eyes gripped to the page. 

_Lord Bridgerton ... secret offer of an attachment ... young lady ... worthy of his title ..._

A lead weight was pressing on her ribs, crushing her from the inside. She forced herself to smile politely - anything to hide the shameful tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks. Pen and Edwina were talking - she tried to mutter her gratitude, her thanks, to Pen for getting to her first, for letting her know before before faced all of the house party guests. _Penelope has been such a good friend to me_ , Kate thought.

Edwina and Pen were reading with her, their arms around Kate. Their words tried to reach her, through her haze of hurt, but everything was muffled and disjointed. How could Whistledown know this? No, there was nothing improper. Kate was stung by a bee. But he must propose, surely. Of course Lord Bridgerton is smitten with Kate - of course Whistledown means Kate. Because of the bee sting everyone will know it must be Kate. Surely people will not believe Lord Bridgerton took liberties. Or was rejected. It is not so bad. He will propose, surely.

_You knew, Kate. You asked him. He never said that there wasn't another. He never denied it._

There was a roaring in her ears, spots in front of her eyes. She blinked rapidly, the air not filling her lungs and her palms sweaty. 

_He only said he desired you. But he also said he would never love you._

" **No**." Kate interrupted abruptly. "Whistledown doesn't mean me. Lord Bridgerton doesn't love me. There's someone else, but because of that dratted bee ..."

"Kate," Pen murmured softly, "there isn't anyone else it could be. Whistledown is referring to you!"

"You do not know that," Kate insisted, and Pen to her credit barely flinched. "He gave Miss Cowper the cut direct for you! What about that?"

"We're very old friends, Kate - I've known the family for years," Pen countered, shaking her head.

"And he likes you, Kate - and you like him - and you could be a viscountess!" Edwina wailed.

Kate then stood abruptly, her mind suddenly decided. She knew, then, with a clear and desperate certainty that she wanted Anthony for herself. But that was selfish, and Kate had spent her life trying to be unselfish, and she knew she could never require Anthony to marry her if it would prevent him from being with the woman he truly desired. _He said he desired you_ , her heart reminded her - _your Anthony_ , he desires you. But he also said he would not love her, and Kate was a prisoner of her own insecurities - insecurities she hadn't even known she had possessed until she had met Anthony.

All her life, she'd been the one who'd received the second glance, the second greeting, the second kiss on the hand. As the elder daughter, it should have been her due to be addressed before her younger sister, but Edwina's beauty was so stunning, the pure and perfect blue of her eyes so startling, that people simply forgot themselves in her presence. Kate had never minded it much - until now. Kate knew now that she wanted Anthony's eyes to light up when she entered the room. She wanted him to scan a crowd until he saw her face. She desperately wanted to be first in his affections, first in his desires, and she could not be married to him knowing that there would always be another in that place.

"I will not trap him into marriage with me, Edwina, not for any inducement - and that's final. Not over some stupid gossip rag. Let's find Mary and go downstairs to breakfast - we will be friendly to the Bridgertons, laugh this off as a very large misunderstanding, and then we will leave for London."

Her eyes dry and her chin set in determination, Kate privately let her heart break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You eeeediot.


	3. Anthony and his brothers

"Get up!"

Anthony groaned and rolled into his pillow, trying to avoid the sunlight streaming through the now open curtains. "Simon, what the devil ...?" He muttered angrily. 

Simon strode over to the bed, and without hesitation, swiftly pulled the pillow away and the covers back, revealing his brother-in-law in nothing but his shirt and undershorts, curled into the foetal position.

"I said, get up!" And without further comment, Simon grabbed the water jug and tipped it over his prone brother. "Now!"

"What the hell?" Anthony shouted, his dignity in tatters but now definitely awake - and soaking wet.

"Read, brother," Simon spat, as he thrust the news sheet into Anthony's hands, to his great confusion. " _Explain this_."

Blinking away sleep, Anthony tried to make his mind comprehend the words, scanning the page anxiously for her name. It had barely been two days! How on earth could Whistledown even know? And what on earth was Whistledown on about - the _one he truly desires_? A _secret offer of an attachment_? This was preposterous. But whatever Whistledown was referring to, that worthy lady could only be Kate - it had to be Kate. There was no one else, and after that damn bee sting, everyone else would know it was Kate, too. Anthony felt violated - this Whistledown had taken his cherished, personal and above all, private sentiments, ones that he himself did not feel he completely understood and had made them shamefully public. 

"Anthony, you awake?" Ben's voice called out, entering the room and similarly holding a copy of the gossip sheet. 

"Urgh, yes, I'm awake and ... must all my brothers be in here?" Anthony managed in shock, still dripping wet, as even Colin entered the room. "Please, someone send for Gregory!" he added sarcastically, looking up at the three pairs of furious eyes, three sets of folded arms on muscled chests. God, how was he going to explain this? That damn Whistledown woman. "For fucks sake brothers," he added, "can we all just calm down?"

"So, nothing improper has occurred between you and Miss Sheffield?" Simon grilled.

"Uhhh ..." Anthony opened his mouth but words couldn't come out, his eyes refusing to meet his brothers' faces. He was no liar. That kiss ... that kiss was for him and Kate, alone. It was theirs, and it was special, and while he refused to disclose it, he could not deny it, either. 

"Jesus, Anthony!" Simon threw his hands in the hair, and began to pace - pulling at his shirt sleeves like he wanted to brawl. Benedict shook his head, and walked to the window in disgust, and Colin's jaw fell open - for once, he was completely without comment. 

"Look, Kate and I have a plan - if there was talk, we would marry ..." Anthony hastily tried to explain.

"Do I want to know when or where you made this plan?" Simon hissed dangerously.

"Last night, we ...," Anthony began - but once again, wisely chose to stop talking before he could incur any further censure from his enraged brothers.

"So you compromise her publicly, everyone covers for you - including Miss Sheffield - then you jeopardize her virtue," Benedict asked incredulously. "All on the basis of some half-promise that you'll do the right thing after there has already been a scandal? That is how you treat Miss Sheffield?"

Anthony had no response to this. He was the elder brother, the head of the family - oh God I've fucked this up, he thought miserably.

"So you'll marry her, then," Simon stated, daring Anthony to contradict him, to call himself out as a hypocrite. 

"If she'll even have you," Benedict agreed, with mocking skepticism, before Anthony could interject. "Everyone knows you rescued her in the garden from some awful fate, but the article rather suggests the awful fate was _you_."

"Actually," Colin spoke up, to general astonishment, "that won't be necessary. The Sheffields have already left."

"What?" Anthony at this finally got out of his soaked bed, heading to his dressing room. "Colin, don't be ridiculous ..."

"No, really brothers, I'm serious," Colin continued, as Anthony searched for clothes. "Miss Cowper tried to cause a scene in the breakfast room about Whistledown but Miss Sheffield - Kate - just laughed it off. Claimed to everyone that she was not the mystery lady and you had acted as any gentleman would in assisting her in the garden. Then they left."

No one said anything to this, in shock. 

"It was all quite amusing - Miss Sheffield was phenomenal," Colin added. "I think Kate said something to Cressida like " _If all it takes is a bee sting to require a lord to wed, then why isn't a debutante on her third season like yourself wrapped in flowers and put in the garden?_ "

He'd quite enjoyed seeing that bitch getting taken down - as had Penelope, and indeed, the entire of house party guests.

Anthony dressed quickly himself, not bothering to call the valet and deliberately hiding his face from his brothers - he was confused and hurt, and his mind was running through every part of his conversation with Kate the previous evening. They had a deal. If there was any talk, he would court and propose, she would accept - maybe it hadn't been perfect, but he had just tried to do the right thing, to be honest. Hadn't he told her he desired her? Hadn't he shown her? Those kisses ... the feel of her body in his arms, her fingertips through his clothes, even the taste of her. Soap and lilies. He had believed that her scent had permeated his shirt - he'd gone to bed still wearing it, and had closed his eyes to inhale and imagine her there with him. Part of him cursed any sense of propriety he had ever considered important, and wished that Simon had so rudely entered to his chambers this morning to find Kate there with him - _it would have been worth it_ , he thought. Then there would be no doubt, and this ridiculous back and forth about what, to Anthony at least, was clearly an inevitability would finally cease. 

But why had she denied it? Why? What had he done wrong? What had changed in a few short hours?

Anthony swore violently to himself in the dressing room, clenching his fists and his jaw - he wanted to punch something in frustration. "Did she leave a note?" Anthony asked, emerging from his dressing room somewhat drier and clothed. 

"Why would she do that? What are you expecting her to say to you?" Colin asked, in surprise. "Honestly, brother I'm surprised you're not celebrating - you've managed to compromise and potentially humiliate a remarkable woman - the only one in the _ton_ who would bother to take any pains to avoid being trapped in marriage with you!" And, Colin thought bitterly, the only one in the _ton_ who would actually suit you.

"Indeed, Anthony," Benedict added. "I'm not sure whether to congratulate you on getting out of this mess so easily without doing a single thing right, or commiserate with you for managing to fuck this up so spectacularly."

"She may have denied it, but you still look like a cad," Simon added, his dark eyes challenging. "So what are you going to do, Anthony?"

"I don't know, brothers," Anthony finally responded. "I just .. I just don't know."


	4. Kate and Edwina

Edwina lifted the quilt and crawled into bed beside her sister.

"You should be asleep," Kate muttered, grumpy at the intrusion. 

"You should be talking to me," Edwina replied. "I heard you crying."

Kate sighed. What had Anthony said, back in the garden before this whole mess? _It can often be most difficult to share one's fears with those one most deeply loves._

"I liked how you handled today, Kate," Edwina began, always looking for the good. "You were so strong. And the look on Cressida's face!" Edwina laughed. "I wanted to paint it and frame it."

Kate managed a small smile, but didn't speak.

"Mother was just trying to protect you," Edwina continued. "Please don't be angry with her - she loves you, really, and she understands what we need to do now, to pretend this isn't important. You know she will keep her feelings to herself - well, when we are in public at least." Edwina thought back to the extremely tense carriage ride home, where Kate had rather harshly told Mary to pull herself together. It might have been necessary, but it had not been pleasant. "Perhaps ... perhaps this is all over, Kate. If that's what you wanted. The _ton_ will move on, and the season will resume, and there will be other suitors."

"Yes, the season will resume as normal," Kate added, remembering her words to Anthony bitterly. "Get some sleep, Ed!"

"But I don't understand, Kate. You care for him, and I know he cares about you," Edwina whispered. "I don't know how or where Whistledown gets her information, but why couldn't she have been referring to your meeting with Anthony in his study, at the musicale? Or perhaps she was at Aubrey Hall, and saw you together in the gardens, after Pall Mall?"

Kate shook her head in frustration. 

"Why couldn't it have been you, Kate?" Edwina continued. "Why can't you let good things happen to you? Why must you fight it? You deserve it, Kate. You do."

"I'm so sorry, Ed," she began softly. "But I just couldn't do it." Kate wiped her eyes and looked to the ceiling, and wondered how to be honest with her beautiful sister, the incomparable of the season, universally desired, welcome in any parlour, friends wherever she went. "He said he wouldn't love me, Ed, that I couldn't expect love," Kate finally whispered. "And I didn't want to be second to anyone else. Or to hold him back if he had a chance with that other lady - someone he truly cares about. I ruined our family's future because I just didn't want to be jealous any more."

Edwina had nothing to say to that, but held Kate as she cried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Much. Angst.
> 
> Apparently making Anthony suffers mean I have to make Kate this impossible martyr, who also suffers. But also: let's celebrate sisters, yeh?

**Author's Note:**

> God they're idiots ... 
> 
> Thank you for your comments and kudos!


End file.
